Jaaved Jaaferi was moonwalking across India around the time when all eyes were on Michael Jackson and his Dangerous moves in the US. Jaaferi later hosted the TV dance show Boogie Woogie. Although through all these years, the son of comedian Jagdeep was acting in Hindi films as well, mostly in comedies, it is now, with the advent of OTT, that he is facing the camera regularly. The Telegraph speaks to the nimble-footed actor about his latest outing on JioHotstar, Oops Ab Kya, inspired by Jane the Virgin, a Latin American telenovela. The series, co-starring Shweta Basu Prasad and Sonali Kulkarni, drops on February 20.
What are your Calcutta-specific memories?
I haven’t been to Calcutta recently. I shot a film in Murshidabad with Shatabdi Roy two and a half years ago, called The Jangipur Trial. It has not released yet. Before that there were always the shows in places like Chandannagar, Midnapore... I did a lot of those shows in the 1990s. In the middle of nowhere, there are 15,000 people waiting. Those shows would go on from 7.30pm to 5am. It was an amazing experience. I had asked them: “Why do you carry on till dawn?” They said we have to either wind up at 10 o’clock or we have to continue till 5pm. There is no public transport after 10pm till 5am. If we end in between, miscreants might create problems. So we would carry on till people had transport to go home in.
Coming to this show, it seems to be a fun family drama based on a medical goof-up involving an accidental artificial insemination.
A poster of Oops Ab Kya
It’s an interesting show, raising issues with old and new value systems. The girl is a virgin but she is pregnant. She is not Mother Mary. So how did she become pregnant? That mystery gets solved but complexities arise. And she has to keep the baby. She knows the guy and he is a married man.
What is your role?
I am the girl’s father.
So you are the person most likely to get a heart attack on hearing of the situation.
No, no. I don’t know. I had got married to her mother and we got divorced. She didn’t tell me then that she was pregnant. So when certain things happen, after 25 years, I get to know I have a daughter. So this is a new chapter opening in my life. A lot of complexities are arising.
So this comes as a double whammy for you — that you have a daughter and that daughter is having a child!
My relationship with her mother also comes in under the scanner. I am a fading TV star who was popular at one time. The characters are quite nuanced.
The premise is such that it could be made into a serious show too. Which road has the series taken?
It has taken the light-hearted road. Otherwise, the show would have become too heavy. But they have made their points intelligently. You will smile, you will laugh and also shed a tear. Lots of moments are there. I don’t normally watch such romantic dramas. I prefer thrillers and drama. But when I worked on this, I found the script to be very interesting. I would sit and watch it. This is drama and comedy — dramedy, you may say.
Comedy has been your forte. Has there been a change in the kind of roles you are getting now from what would be offered in the 1990s and 2000s? Are the stories more intimate?
OTT is a very interesting space. It is between TV series and film. It is like an expanded film, more detailed. A film has to tell a story in two hours. Here you get an opportunity to go deep with the story, character and situation. Even if you plan a second season, one graph is completed. In eight episodes, it comes to some kind of conclusion. Interesting territory is being trodden upon. You don’t have to worry about film distributors, territories etc. So one can experiment more, without worrying about formulae of making money. A lot more challenging scripts are being written. It is a great time for the audience. They are getting more variety.
Horror comedy is coming up in a big way, You have acted in one, Bhoot Police.
Yes. But these genres have always existed. There was a film called Bhoot Bungla (directed by Mehmood) in the 1960s. There is so much expansion. It is also formulaic. One film makes ₹100 crores, so everyone wants to make a horror comedy. This happens in other businesses too. Horror comedies are the flavour of the year. It is a passing phase.
You have also made serious films like Fire and Shaurya along the way. Do you think all your skill sets were not properly utilised?
I had the skill sets to be a lead. But it didn’t happen. Maybe I didn’t plan my career well. There is no point looking back and thinking I made a mistake or perceptions were wrong. I have been around for 40 years. Opportunities are coming my way. In the last four months, I have had four web series releases, including Oops Ab Kya. And all the roles have been different. So it’s a great time.